Book Reviews

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Arts

Gay Talese Stays Too Long At 'The Voyeur's Motel'

7:00am July 24, 2016

by Annalisa Quinn

Gay Talese conflates the journalist and the voyeur in his new book about a motel owner who spied on his guests. And he makes the readers voyeurs as well: We watch him watching the unwary motel guests.

To The Secretary By Mary Thompson-Jones.

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Arts

'To The Secretary' Tries To Unwind The Tangles Of Diplomacy

7:00am July 21, 2016

by Genevieve Valentine

State Department veteran Mary Thompson-Jones sifts through a few choice WikiLeaks cables and parses them for a lay audience in To The Secretary, a fascinating primer on a complex and difficult field.

Books
Arts

Steinbeck Is An Influence — And A Character — In 'Monterey Bay'

6:20pm July 20, 2016

by Jean Zimmerman

Lindsay Hatton makes a bold move in her new novel: She lifts a character from John Steinbeck's 1945 classic Cannery Row -- and then the author himself — for a tale of thwarted romance by the sea.

The House At The Edge Of The Night By Catherine Banner

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Arts

'The House At The Edge Of Night' Is A Comforting, Familiar Place

3:58pm July 20, 2016

by Annalisa Quinn

Catherine Banner's new novel takes familiar tropes — it's a multigenerational family saga set in Sicily, and yes, there's limoncello and dancing in the piazza — and makes them fresh and inviting.

Books
Arts

Complex Stories Snap Together In 'This Must Be The Place'

7:00am July 19, 2016

by Heller McAlpin

Maggie O'Farrell's novel jumps between multiple storylines, points of view, times and places to tell the story of an American professor who meets a reclusive French actress on a lonely Irish road.

Books
Arts

'Stars' Is A Sequel That Goes A Bit Askew

8:00am July 16, 2016

by Jason Sheehan

In The Stars Askew, Rjurik Davidson returns to the world of Caeli-Amur, now trying to put itself back together after a revolution. But the story bogs down in plural narratives and political minutiae.

Books
Arts

Time Catches Up With Us All In 'The Heavenly Table'

7:00am July 14, 2016

by Jason Sheehan

Donald Ray Pollock's surreal, hardscrabble new novel is set in 1917, but it could just as well be 917; his characters are all lost in time and puzzled by the pace at which the future's coming at them.

Cover detail from The Dream Life of Astronauts, by Patrick Ryan.

Books
Arts

'The Dream Life Of Astronauts' Is A Journey To Emotional Deep Space

2:42pm July 13, 2016

by Maureen Corrigan

Patrick Ryan's book of short stories is set around Cape Canaveral, Fla., during the 1960s and '70s. Critic Maureen Corrigan says it's the best new short story collection she's read in light years.

Queue Listen Now

Books
Arts

What Price Happiness? Pretty Expensive, According To 'The Invoice'

7:00am July 13, 2016

by Heller McAlpin

Jonas Karlsson's clever parable follows an average guy who's uncommonly content with his lot in life — until he gets an astronomical bill from a sinister entity trying to redistribute happiness.

A Natural History Of Hell By Jeffrey Ford

Books
Arts

Darkness And Magic Abound In 'Natural History Of Hell'

6:40pm July 12, 2016

by Jason Heller

Jeffrey Ford's new story collection is packed with fairies, demons, historical figures and death personified: not always the freshest concepts, but when the stories work, they're enthrallingly eerie.